Monday, July 1, 2013

Stocks came roaring out of the gate on the first day of trading of the second half and third quarter of the year, spirits high after massive gains though the first half of 2013.

Traders were willfully ignorant of data coming out of China, where manufacturing is is not growing, but actually contracting and has been for the past four to six months. Nobody in their right minds believes data coming out of the red state, so can one now suppose that they're lying about things being as bad as they really are?

Regardless, the euphoria over the global economy drifting toward another Lehman-like moment made European bourses uptick and the contagion caught America in full blossom.

It didn't last long, however, as stocks made the day's highs shortly after US ISM data for June limped in at 50.9, but being above the 50.5 estimate, the slick traders boosted stocks beaten down much of the past two weeks. The Dow was up 173 points, but erased more than half of those gains by day's end, in a classic up early, down later bear market pattern.